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THE TEACHER'S 
CANDLESTICK 



38? Jftarffaret flatter? 

Uniform with this volume 

LIVING TEACHERS. 
THE TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK. 
THE CHARM OF THE IMPOSSIBLE. 
THE SEED, THE SOIL, AND THE 

SOWER. 
THE TEACHER— REAL AND IDEAL. 
Each, tall i6mo, boards, 35 cents net. 



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F. M. BARTON COMPANY 
Cleveland, Ohio 



THE TEACHER'S 
CANDLESTICK 



BY 

MARGARET S LATTERY 



CLEVELAND, OHIO 

F. M. BARTON COMPANY 

1909 



^ 



Copyright, 1909 
By F. M . Barton Company 



Obi 244 04? I 



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4 



THE TEACHER'S 
CANDLESTICK 

ONE day when the leaves were 
falling and the first chill of win- 
ter was creeping over the city, when 
dull skies and lowering clouds tempt- 
ed one to look at life through gray 
glasses, I walked with a friend along 
a crowded street watching the constant 
procession of wealth, joy and happi- 
ness, of poverty, discouragement and 
suffering pass by. There a group of 
pretty girls with their chaperon 
boarded a car; women richly gowned 
whirled past in beautiful carriages and 
luxurious machines. Now, some noisy, 
bright-eyed boys, fine looking men, a 
burdened woman sad-eyed and weary, 

7 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

a little ragged girl with a baby drag- 
ging by one hand and a brown pitcher 
in the other hurried past and were 
lost in the endless moving picture. 

As I watched them and let my eyes 
wander over that crowded street, then 
up and up the huge piles of brick and 
stone within whose shelter thousands 
of my fellows were working out the 
problem of life; as I listened to the 
roar and din of the great city's labor, 
again as so many times before, I felt 
the thrilling power of the sense of the 
immensity of life. 

From the summit of Pike's Peak, 
looking out upon the great sea of 
mountains, one's soul is thrilled with 
wonder; beside mighty Niagara one 
may stand in silent awe, but there is 
nothing in all the world which can so 

8 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

move the very heart, as when standing 
aside for a moment on the crowded 
street one sees humanity with all its 
pleasures and joy of living, with all its 
pathos and ceaseless pain, pass by. 

A few moments and we stood before 
a church I had long wanted to see. 
We opened the inner door and in the 
dim light of the late afternoon, we 
entered. If you have never been into 
your church on a week day you must 
go. If you have, you know what it 
means. A moment — and the world 
has gone; its rush, its din, its noisy 
whirl is forgotten, and through the 
light of tinted windows, from the 
altar, from the cross to which your 
eyes are lifted, God speaks and you 
listen. Then you pray — but not as on 
Sunday when with your fellow men 

9 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

you listen to words that are spoken. 
Now you speak without words, 
straight to the heart of the great Al- 
mighty "That" — the creator of the 
world — your Father; and as you speak, 
you know He hears. 

In the hush and quiet of the great 
church we rested until the shadows 
deepened and some one came quietly 
in behind the altar rail and lighted 
seven tiny lights upon a branching 
candlestick. I saw them shine out 
one by one. I could not see whether 
they were lamps or candles, only that 
they were lights glowing with warmth 
and cheer which reached down to me 
in the darkening shadows. 

I went quietly out of the church, 
glancing back at the door to see them 
shining there, and a verse I had read 

10 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

long before in Numbers flashed into 
my mind, "And the Lord spake unto 
Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, and 
say unto him, when thou lightest the 
lamps, the seven lamps shall give 
light." As I closed the door and 
stepped out into the chill, the noise 
and the need, I said to myself, "I will 
do it! The seven lights, one by one 
I will light them! The darkness is 
great — the candlestick small — yet it 
can give light." 

Have you ever looked at it — "The 
Teacher's Candlestick," ready, waiting 
to be lighted? It is your candlestick 
— it waits for you. Perhaps it stands 
in some country school out in the 
prairie, perhaps hidden away in the 
mountains, or in some discouraging 
class among the city's poor. It may 

11 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

be in a large and prosperous school or 
in the mission compound under for- 
eign skies. Wherever it is you may 
light the lights, and one by one they 
shall send out their beams into the 
darkness. 

THE FIRST LAMP— KNOWLEDGE. 

Light it with me and rejoice as its 
tiny rays guide men and women, boys 
and girls and little children along the 
way. 

One cannot teach what he does not 
know. When one has listened week 
after week to lessons given by teach- 
ers with very limited knowledge, he 
realizes the truth of the statement. 
How evident the meager preparation 
is! Just a question asked eagerly by 
some bright boy, and the great lack is 

12 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

revealed. Seen in contrast with the 
teacher who knows the subject, who 
sees all sides of it, who has anticipated 
questions and prepared for them, how 
weak seems the one who knows only 
the words of the text and has not even 
made these his own by translating 
them into terms of everyday life. 

I once listened to two lessons on 
"Our Bible." The first lesson to me 
seemed empty words, yet the teacher 
was earnest and sincere, and the boys 
and girls between the ages of twelve 
and fourteen listened because they 
respected and liked her. She told 
them how many books there are in the 
Bible, asked them to name the divi- 
sions, the probable authors of various 
books, and the books of the Old 
and New Testaments as they learned 

13 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

them in the junior department. This 
was not very satisfactory as they had 
forgotten. She closed the lesson by 
saying that our Bible is the most won- 
derful book in the world and more 
copies of it are sold than of any other 
book. 

After the class I asked what her 
next lesson on the Bible was to be. 
She seemed astonished, and said that 
was about all she tried to teach. And 
there it lay on the table, the Book of 
the ages with its marvelous history 
all unknown to these boys and girls, 
who would have been fascinated by 
the tales of struggle through which it 
had passed, into whose hearts might 
have crept a deep reverence for the 
words so wonderfully preserved 
through the long centuries. 

14 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

The second teacher to whom I lis- 
tened about three weeks later, both 
fascinated the children and impressed 
them with a feeling of awe so that 
they looked with new interest at the 
familiar Bibles in their hands. 

On her table she had a dozen or 
more Bibles of various sizes, ages, and 
prints, a model of a parchment scroll, 
pictures of very old Bibles and the 
pages of Hebrew manuscript from the 
British museum. 

"Where did we get our Bible?" was 
her first simple, direct question. The 
answers were varied and very vague. 
They had no clear ideas ; in fact most 
of them had never thought about it. 
As she began her word picture I saw 
the travelers sit down before the fire 
in the old convent, saw the servant 

15 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

come in with the basket of manu- 
scripts, yellow with age, ready to burn 
them. I saw one of the travelers seize 
them and heard his exclamation of joy 
and surprise as he told his companions 
that these rolls were parts of the Old 
Testament, the oldest manuscripts he 
had yet seen. I listened with interest 
to her story of the three oldest Bibles 
in the world, how much they were 
worth and where one might see them. 
But I enjoyed most of all the look 
upon the faces of the children as she 
described very simply the work of 
translation from the old manuscripts. 
It dawned upon them for the first 
time through how many tongues the 
words had come to us and the fact that 
every little word had to be translated. 
When she asked how many would like 

16 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

just to copy the book of Genesis with- 
out the work of translating, a sigh 
went around the class, and not a hand 
was raised. She did not tell them that 
the Bible is a wonderful book. She 
did not need to, for they felt it. 

When, after class, I asked her about 
the future work, she gave such an in- 
teresting outline I wanted to return 
and hear, as she would tell it, how the 
first Bible was printed, how young 
George, who could write, spent an 
hour every morning copying from the 
English Bible chained to the pulpit, 
some of the stories he longed to read 
to himself and his neighbors. I want- 
ed to listen to her stories of what that 
Bible has done and is doing in the 
hands of brave missionaries all over 
the world. 

17 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

"I don't ask them to remember the 
names of the books," she said in a half 
apologetic way, "I just want them to 
know where to find the stories of the 
great men and where to look for fam- 
iliar chapters and verses." She was 
right, the names of the books would 
come of themselves. 

She had lighted the lamp of knowl- 
edge upon her candlestick. She made 
her pupils, as she made me, want to 
know more. She sent them away with 
a deep respect and feeling of reverence 
for the book which they had taken to 
Sunday school so many years with- 
out even thinking whence it came. 
She knew her subject and out of her 
abundance she gave to them. I have 
listened to many teachers since whose 
subject matter was so broad that after 

US 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

scores of lessons were taught, it had 
not begun to be exhausted. Such 
knowledge of any subject does not 
come all at once. Knowledge never 
does. The lamp is lighted and being 
constantly fed with oil, glows brighter 
with the years. The question is, have 
you lighted the lamp? 

But knowledge of material out of 
relation to those to whom it must be 
given is almost useless. I know a pro- 
fessor whose knowledge of astronomy 
seems unlimited. But he does not 
know boys. When he tries to get his 
knowledge of stars into the heads of 
boys he makes a dead failure. The 
teacher of astronomy must know not 
only stars but boys, and what is harder 
still, girls. 

It is the old, familiar sentence again, 

19 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

"The teacher must know the child." 

How can I know him? If only I 
can successfully light this larger lamp 
of knowledge, my candlestick will be 
of service to the world even though 
the other lamps burn dimly. 

It costs something to know children, 
and it pays larger dividends than any- 
thing else I know. 

Am I willing to pay what it costs? 
I must face that question first. We 
get nothing in this world for which 

we do not pay. Even love must be 
paid for in sacrifice, which though it 
is sweet to give, costs something. It 
costs in time to know children and un- 
less I am willing to give it, I cannot 
know them. To gain even a working 
knowledge of children by contact with 
them one hour a week on Sunday is 

20 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

absolutely impossible. One does not 
get acquainted through the more or 
less formal relation of teacher and 
class. I have repeatedly learned 
more about a class of forty children 
in fifteen minutes on the playground 
at recess, than in five hours in the 
schoolroom. I have learned more 
about a girl in one hour's walk 
through the fields in the springtime 
than in a year of observation in the 
classroom. This knowledge cost me 
something. It took my time. It will 
take the time of every teacher who 
means to light the lamp of knowledge 
upon his candlestick. He will have 
to add to the one hour on Sunday, the 
tramp through the woods, the quiet 
evening in the parlor, the trolley ride, 
the class picnic and social, the occa- 

21 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 



sional invitation to concert or lecture, 
the numberless ways and means by 
which he may gain that intimate 
knowledge which will make it possi- 
ble for him to know the child. 

" Where can I get this time?" so 
many teachers ask. I do not know. I 
only know that experience and obser- 
vation have taught me that we find 
time for the things we want to do 
most. I know a young man who had 
tried everything he knew to improve 
the discipline of his class of boys ; who 
had sought advice from every author- 
ity he could reach, yet failed to gain 
control. Suddenly he awakened to 
the fact that he knew nothing about 
his boys. He began to want to know 
them; found time to invite them to his 
home for dinner; to have an evening 

22 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

of games with a group of two or three ; 
to put a boy with talent for the violin 
in contact with a good teacher; to get 
a "job" for another who was obliged 
to leave school: to find work as janitor 
for the mother of the most hopeless 
one in the class, and to encourage the 
most ambitious to go on, under diffi- 
culties, with his preparation for col- 
lege. In less than a year, to his great 
surprise, the attendance was regular 
and the discipline had taken care of 
itself. 

To gain knowledge of children de- 
mands not only time but patience. It 
is so easy to judge them by what they 
do. It is hard to patiently search for 
the motive which lies behind the act. 
But I can never really know them un- 

23 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

less I am willing to suspend judgment 
until I find out why. 

There is a cause for every result, 
and the expert gives his time and 
thought to that, rather than to the re- 
sult. When one suffers from headache 
it is necessary first to give temporary 
relief, but no physician would be con- 
tent to let the case rest there. There 
must be a reason for the headache; he 
finds it, then works intelligently. 

It is so easy for most of us who are 
at work with children to content our- 
selves with temporary relief"; it is 
hard for us, with sympathy, enthusi- 
asm and unlimited patience, to search 
out the real causes of our problems. 
But if the lamp of knowledge is to 
burn with increasing brightness, this 
is what we must do. 

24 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

Knowledge of children, their in- 
heritance, environment, interests, 
hopes, desires and dreams; knowledge 
of material, which when presented 
shall deepen and intensify every good 
motive, and awaken a hunger and 
thirst for all things worth while — this 
is included in the lamp at which we 
have been looking. Set it aflame up- 
on your teacher's candlestick without 
delay and feed it constantly with fresh 
oil through the years. 

THE SECOND LAMP — TRAINING. 

The second lamp I would light with 
the same eagerness and enthusiasm. It 
is called Training. It is more appar- 
ent in these days than ever before, that 
one to do the best work, must know 
not only what, but how. To know 

25 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

how, one must be trained. His train- 
ing is two fold; it comes through 
theory and practice. If one works 
without theory he expends effort 
blindly. If one has only theories with 
which to meet life's problems, he is 
not practical and his help is not vital. 

The training class, where those 
of a community interested in the same 
problems of religious education can 
meet together and discuss theories 
which may help them, or, where un- 
der the stimulus of a united interest 
and with a competent leader, they can 
study the Bible and methods of pre- 
senting its truths, telling its stories and 
fixing in the mind its characters, is of 
the greatest benefit to the teacher. 

The training class in the individual 
school, where the young people who 

26 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

are to be the teachers of the next 
few years are led to thoughtfully con- 
sider, in simple ways, the mental life 
of the child, his periods of develop- 
ment, his changing interests and la- 
tent possibilities, is giving to hundreds 
of churches more thoughtful teaching 
of their children. But when such 
classes for the training of teachers are 
not within reach, it is possible for one 
to train himself in the theory of teach- 
ing. Books and magazine articles 
written simply and clearly, give to the 
teacher who is in earnest, very real 
and definite help. They make him 
think and his class benefits by his 
thinking. They furnish him with 
theories and his class gives opportuni- 
ty to test them. Very real tests they 
are sometimes! Twenty minutes or 

27 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

half an hour a day given to these books 
and courses of study will make a won- 
derful improvement in one's teaching 
power, even in a year. One can find 
twenty minutes a day if he wants to 
enough. It is true that the Sunday 
school cannot at present demand or 
expect trained teachers in the strictest 
sense. But it can expect, and ought 
to demand, teachers with much better 
equipment than many now have. 

One day in the early spring some 
years ago, I was busy trying to im- 
prove the grass plot in front of my 
home. Workmen repairing the steps 
had torn and trodden down the grass 
and it looked rather hopeless. As I 
was working a neighbor passed and 
said laughingly, "Don't work so hard; 
you will never be able to make a fine 

28 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

lawn out of that, it's the wrong kind 
of soil." Half in fun I answered, 
"You are just like the rest of the 
world! Why don't you encourage me 
a little instead of saying it can't be 
done." "Well," was the reply, "it 
can't, so why not say so?" "Because, 
what I am trying to do can be done. 
You see I am not trying to make a 
fine lawn; I am just determined to 
make a better lawn than I have now." 
How many times since, the words 
have come back to me, "better than I 
have now." Yes, that is what I can 
do with the problem of training. 1 
may never be a wonderful teacher, 
perhaps not even a "fine" teacher, but 
if I persistently work, training myself, 
I may always, — there is no exception 
to the rule, — become a better teacher 

29 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

than I am now. And so I will light 
with determination and expectation 
the second lamp upon the teacher's 
candlestick and bid it send its tiny 
rays out into the shadows. 

THE THIRD LAMP — EXAMPLE. 

It is not only by knowledge and 
through training that my candlestick 
may give light, for the third lamp, 
Example, has always sent shining 
steady beams out into the world of 
need. 

What I do will always reach fur- 
ther than what I say. "What you do 
speaks so loud that I cannot hear what 
you say," is one quotation children un- 
failingly remember and believe. 
Their eyes are keen and sharp and 
alas for me, if what I say on Sunday 

30 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

will not match what I do on Saturday; 
or if I ask them to do what I am not 
myself willing to do. If I expect 
them while away in the summer vaca- 
tion to attend Sunday school and bring 
back to me the card signed by super- 
intendent or teacher saying they have 
done so, then I must myself be a visit- 
or in some school during vacation and 
return with my card signed. If I 
expect "home work" I must do my 
own, which consists of the careful 
preparation of what I shall require of 
them. Many teachers fail to secure 
"home work" because they fail to 
prepare definite work to be done. 

If the girls in my class can see me 
just once in perfect control of my 
temper under trying circumstances, it 
means more than my month's teaching 

31 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

of self control. If they hear me repeat 
the words of gossip, unkindly criti- 
cism of my pastor, superintendent, or 
fellow teachers, then, when I am ready 
to teach what the epistle of James has 
to say about the tongue, what I say 
will be only words and will not carry 
weight. 

About three or four years ago I re- 
member we had a long series of rainy 
Sundays. It lowered the attendance 
in my department in Sunday school 
and greatly interfered with the work. 
At last a pleasant Sunday came and I 
talked earnestly with the children, 
asking them to think of Sunday school 
as they did of the day school, and 
make a great effort the next rainy 
Sunday to have our attendance at least 
fifty out of a possible sixty-five. My 

32 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

plea seemed to make an impression. 
In about two weeks the rainy Sunday 
came. Not only Sunday, but Friday 
and Saturday there had been a down 
pour. On Friday night I had attend- 
ed a concert and having a severe cold 
had taken a carriage. On Sunday the 
cold was no better and everyone said 
I must not think of Sunday school. 
It meant a long trolley ride, a change 
of cars and a wait in the rain. Sud- 
denly my conscience said to me, "Why 
not take a carriage as you did on Fri- 
day night? You told the children to 
make every effort to be present." It 
came as a shock to me. Take a car- 
riage to Sunday school; whoever 
heard of such a thing! I had to do it 
Friday because I had my ticket and 
couldn't miss the concert! 

33 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

We had a long debate, my con- 
science and I, and it won, and I finally, 
a little late, drove to Sunday school. 
The children were there, fifty-two of 
them. I wish you might have seen the 
smile with which they greeted me. I 
congratulated them for their "effort" 
and they showed open appreciation of 
mine. I never received a larger rate 
of interest on any dollar I invested 
than came to me from that one. What 
if I had not gone to Sunday school 
that day? They would have gotten 
along without me. Probably none of 
them would have greatly suffered 
morally because I was not there, and 
yet if I had not gone I would have 
had nothing more to say on the sub- 
ject of rainy Sundays. How many 
times I have learned it! I cannot af- 

34 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

ford, no teacher can afford, to let his 
actions close his lips, so that the words 
which ought to be said cannot be said 
by him. Yes, what they see me do 
must always mean more than what 
they hear me ask them to do. That is 
why, all over our land, teachers of 
limited knowledge and meagre train- 
ing whose lives have spoken purity, 
sacrifice, fearless honesty and real 
courage, have been able to teach, in 
spite of limitations, with that power 
which influences life and character. 

Live, then speak. Light with deep 
determination the lamp of example, 
knowing that even though the others 
burn dimlv, it will shine into the dark 
where men are at work with their 
problems and will bring cheer and 
confidence. 

35 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

When I have lighted the lamps of 
knowledge, training and example 
there is a fourth which I must light 
or these will slowly burn out as they 
have done on many a candlestick. 

THE FOURTH LAMP— PERSEVERANCE. 

Its name is Perseverance, and with- 
out it I can do nothing. "We can- 
not begin our Sunday school exactly 
at twelve, the pupils will not come 
on time," some superintendent says 
to me, and I answer, "You mean, not 
that you cannot begin on time, but 
that you have not yet done so. It is 
one of the things that can be done if 
one keeps at it. "My girls will not 
do home work," writes a puzzled 
teacher. "It can't be done in my 
class," adds another. They mean it 

36 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

hasn't been, not it can't be done. If a 
thing ought to be done there must be 
a way to do it. If there is a way, it can 
be found. This is plain common sense 
and it helps one wonderfully in solv- 
ing his problems as a teacher. 

It is such a stimulus to recall how 
through perseverance men have ac- 
complished the seemingly impossible. 
When mountain ranges stood in the 
way of progress, perseverance led first 
around, then over, then through them. 
When rapid transit became a necessity 
and there was no more room for tracks 
in the street, perseverance led men to 
construct tracks over the street, and 
under the street, then under the river 
and the harbor. Now it is said that 
the merchants of Paris are asking that 
the roofs of their shops be made the 

37 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

stations for air ships. Perseverance 
explains accomplishment in every line 
of work, and without it the teacher's 
candlestick can give but feeble rays 
of light. 

THE FIFTH LAMP — ENTHUSIASM. 

There is a fifth lamp which should 
burn with steady, cheerful flame upon 
every candlestick. I have already 
suggested its name. It is Enthusiasm. 
The real genuine enthusiasm which 
no difficult or disagreeable circum- 
stance can dampen. Talk with a golf 
enthusiast ten minutes a day through 
the golfing season, or with a base-ball 
or foot-ball enthusiast, and you will 
see what I mean. I like to see a Sun- 
day school enthusiast. He is not 
affected by heat or cold. Even Sun- 

38 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

day school concerts, and rehearsals 
where two are present when ten 
should be, will not dampen his ardor. 
I remember with delight a conver- 
sation I overheard some weeks ago in 
a church vestfy. A young man, home 
from college over Sunday asked if he 
might walk home with one of the 
girls, a teacher in the primary depart- 
ment. "I have a Sunday school 
class," she explained, "and shall not 
be ready to go until after one o'clock." 
In a half sarcastic tone he asked, 
"What do you teach in Sunday school 
for?" "Because I want to," was her 
answer. "I just love it." Then fol- 
lowed the most enthusiastic descrip- 
tion of eight boys I have ever heard, 
and she meant it. I wish we had 
more who loved it! What a differ- 

39 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

ence it would make in the spirit of 
the teaching force in most Sunday 
schools. There is no light upon the 
teacher's candlestick which can so 
quickly set other lights aflame. 
Every teacher needs it. If it is genu- 
ine it will keep him steady in times 
of discouragement and wiW make his 
work a pleasure and satisfaction. 
Happy are those children whose 
teachers "just love it." 

THE SIXTH LAMP— SYMPATHY. 

The next lamp, burning but dimly 
on many a candlestick, and not yet 
lighted on many another, is Sympathy. 
I do not mean what is expressed in 
the common phrase, "I am sorry for 
you," falling easily from so many 
lips. Not, I am sorry or glad for you, 

40 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

but with you. When I truly sympa- 
thize, I feel with you. Memory and 
imagination are in action, and as I 
look at you, hear your story or read 
the record of your life, I can say, "I 
understand." For a moment we are 
near kinsmen, brothers, yes, more, I 
am you! 

No one can teach successfully who 
has not deep in his nature the ele- 
ments of sympathy. Without sym- 
pathy it is impossible to understand 
and without understanding one cannot 
teach. Perhaps this is what the old 
Hebrew philosopher meant when he 
said, "With all thy getting, get under- 
standing." 

Sympathy more than anything else 
enlarges my world and makes me one 
with all sorts and conditions of men. 

41 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

It is this that awakens me to new 
life when early some warm June morn- 
ing, I see my twelve year old neigh- 
bor carefully adjusting his new fish- 
ing rod, and examining with serious 
face his can of bait. Then with 
pleasure and expectation in his face, 
in his very step, I see him start off for 
the day. His anticipation and joy are 
mine. I, too, although in reality I 
must work hard all day, am 'goin' 
fishin' !" 

When the last sweet days of June 
come stealing on, and roses and com- 
mencements are everywhere, it is 
sympathy that stirs my heart and 
makes it beat faster as I watch them 
take their places upon the platform; 
the girls in the white dresses that for 
weeks have been of such tremendous 

42 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

importance, and the young men so 
determined in their effort not to look 
self-conscious, and failing so com- 
pletely. I may have seen scores of 
classes march out upon the platform, 
and at the close receive their parch- 
ment rolls tied with ribbon, and yet 
it is all new, as new as if none had 
ever been graduated before. For I 
have seen sweet, excited faces, and 
strong, manly ones looking down into 
the audience where sat fathers and 
mothers to whom this graduation is 
the only one worthy of interest. It 
has cost them much; they have paid 
it gladly and, following their proud 
eyes to a certain seat, in front row or 
third, I understand and for one glad 
moment their satisfaction is mine. 
If I have the power of sympathy, 

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TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

as I watch the mother reaching out 
her arms to catch the little toddler 
taking his first tiny steps, her joy may 
be mine; and if perchance that awful 
day comes when the little feet are still, 
and instead of the music of the baby 
voice, the perfume of flowers and the 
crushing silence fills the house, then 
her unspeakable sorrow is mine, and 
as I put my arm around her and 
whisper "God comfort you," I under- 
stand — and the time will come when 
I can help. 

If I have sympathy, my horizon is 
ever broadening and reaching out, un- 
til I can feel with the little heathen 
child-widow, the burdened woman of 
the slums, the men and women who, 
overtaken by sin, have gone down 
under its power, the young and happy 

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TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

to whom life is just a holiday, the 
earnest and serious, the successful men 
and the failures. With sympathy I 
can feel the mighty throbbing heart of 
humanity until, thrilled and inspired 
by the great, common need, I shall 
act for the good of my fellows. t- 

If the heart and mind of the teach- 
er be closed to all the comedies and 
tragedies of childhood and youth, how 
can he hope to find words with which 
to build character that shall stand the 
test of life's experiences? He cannot 
do it! The teacher must sympathize, 
feel with his pupils, — all his pupils, — 
and if he earnestly desires this power 
of understanding he can have it. 

All knowledge and all achievement 
begins in desire. By desire I am led 
to seek and then to find. As soon as I 

45 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

really desire to "feel with" my fellows 
I shall banish from mind and heart 
all pretense and false standards and 
look at men as friends and brothers. 
There is no other way by which I 
may understand. 

To Christ all men were brothers. 
He said it, and lived it. His sympa- 
thy was perfect. He touched the 
hearts of men to the very depths; so 
deeply, indeed, that for more than 
nineteen hundred years they have been 
responding to his call for higher, more 
honorable and generous living. It is 
belief in His sympathy, power to feel 
with, and understand, that leads strong 
men and little children to whisper to 
God the heart's deepest petitions, 
"for Christ's sake." 

If, as a teacher, I am to show these 

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TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

boys and girls and young men and 
women the way to their Father, and 
lead them into obedience to His will, 
the lamp of sympathy must burn with 
clear and steady light upon my teach- 
er's candlestick. 

THE SEVENTH LAMP — FAITH. 

And now let us light the last lamp ; 
the central one, the lamp of Faith. 
What could we do with our teacher's 
candlestick were it not for faith? 
This is the lamp whose warm, deep 
glow gives courage to the laborers in 
the darkest and most hopeless places. 
Faith which makes us know that at 
the beginning and end of all honest 
effort is God. When once we know 
it, and confidence in Him sweeps over 

47 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

our souls, we can face facts without 
fear. 

There is poor teaching in the Sun- 
day school today; there is a lack of 
real appreciation of the teacher's mis- 
sion; there are unsatisfactory lessons; 
there is indifference, — utter absence of 
interest on the part of parents and a 
tendency to ignore the Sabbath; poor 
inheritance and environment for thou- 
sands; great wickedness everywhere 
in the world. The pressure of life is 
heavy, time is all too short; there is 
no money to do the needed work — 
how endless the difficulties one must 
meet. And yet we need not fear. 
Good is greater than evil. God is 
greater than all these things. 

Light your lamp of faith. In its ever 
brightening rays you may see hospitals 

48 






TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

of every sort; homes for all manner 
of needy children; shelters for the 
neglected and sin-cursed; millions in 
gold given every year freely; men 
with great souls working all over the 
world for purity, civic righteousness 
and peace; men striving to answer 
tremendous and baffling questions; 
conventions on every hand where 
people by the hundred give their time, 
money and lives, in the effort to bring 
better things to every man. Keep 
your faith, — in your children, your- 
self and your God. 

Through all the ages the lamp of 
faith has shone, else had men died. 

Its beams came softly through the 
gloom of the years no pen has record- 
ed; more steadily they came through 
the long centuries when man was find- 

49 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

ing himself, and brighter still as he 
grew, prospered and overcame. It 
burned on through the last dark 
years of Roman rule and lighted the 
way of the Christ-child's manger. 
When he went away it still shone on, 
and forgetting its mission lost its mes- 
sage in the greed for lands and gold. 
Then the lamp burned low but a 
tiny ray reached Luther's monastery 
cell, and again flashed forth the beacon 
to guide the world. When men for- 
got love in law, again it shone, until 
a better, deeper and more Christlike 
brotherhood was born. It is shining 
still and in its calm, steady beams I 
may light my own small lamp. 

Knowledge, Training, Example, 
Perseverance, Enthusiasm, Sympathy 
and Faith! And yet, as Ruskin says 

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TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

in "The Seven Lamps of Architect- 
ure," and Dr. Hill in "Seven Lamps," 
which he has lighted to guide the pub- 
lic school teacher on his way, — after 
all they are only seven lights, and 
many more must be lighted as men 
shall learn their need. 

Only seven lights upon the candle- 
stick which we as Sunday school 
teachers have lighted today. They 
may not be the seven most needed 
upon your candlestick, but as they 
shine out they can help you to go home 
to your own world and light one by 
one the lamps you need upon your 
candlestick. 

All the good you want for these 
whom you call your children, God, 
who has taught the children of men 
to call Him "Father" wants much 

Si 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

more. Trust Him and help Him to 
bring it to pass. They are your chil- 
dren — and God's. Never forget that. 
Light your lamps then with courage 
and joy. Remember that as Zechariah 
saw in his vision the two olive trees 
feeding the lamps upon the candle- 
stick, so you may see God's almighty 
power and love feeding your tiny 
lamps. That is what Browning meant 
when he said: 

"Would I fain in my impotent yearn- 
ing do all for this man, 
And dare doubt he alone shall not 
help him, who yet alone can? 

yfc t}» yfc 3fc Tjf 

Would I suffer for him that I love? 
So wouldst thou — so wilt thou! 
So shall crown thee the topmost, in- 
effablest, uttermost crown — 

52 



TEACHER'S CANDLESTICK 

And thy love fill infinitude wholly, 
nor leave up nor down 
One spot for the creature to stand 
in!" 



S3 



